Top Stories - Topics from December, 2014

A couple of significant changes are taking place in the Madison County government complex as 2015 begins. There will be a new magistrate judge for the first time in many years, as well as a new tax commissioner.

MAGISTRATE JUDGE

David Patton is a lifelong resident of Madison County and a familiar face in law enforcement, having worked for the sheriff’s department for many years.

But on Jan. 2, he will assume a new role replacing long-time magistrate judge Harry Rice, who is retiring.

Patton won his bid for the office during the May Republican primary and has been preparing himself for the job ever since.

“I am a lot more comfortable with it than I was in the beginning,” Patton said, adding that this is due in part to the competent, professional and experienced staff who will stay on to work for him.

His office staff includes the familiar faces of Pepper Jones, Kelly Caldwell and Misty Geiger, who he commends for being good at what they do.

Patton says he knows he has big shoes to fill and is anxious to get started.

“I hope I can do a good job people, because that is what it’s all about, serving the people,” he said. “I am grateful for the support I’ve received and hope to be magistrate for many years.”

Patton and wife, Kim, live in Colbert and have two children, Jennifer and DJ (David Jr.).

Patton graduated (as part of a dual enrollment) from Madison County High School and from Athens Technical College in 1983.[Full Story »]

The Madison County Industrial Development and Building Authority voted unanimously to award a contract to Griffin Brothers Inc. to install water lines down Brewer Phillips Road and Booger Hill Road to Hwy. 29.

Industrial authority executive director Marvin White said the project is part of a plan to connect the Franklin County water system all the way through Madison County to the Clarke County line. IDA officials say this will provide a long-term water supply for the county, while also allowing the county to purchase water from Franklin County at a much cheaper rate than it currently buys from Commerce.

The contract with Griffin Brothers is for $569,322. This is for the labor costs. Meanwhile, the IDA will buy the materials for the project at an estimated $339,000. This puts the overall cost of “phase I” of the expansion project — the Brewer Phillips and Booger Hill Road lines — at $908,000. The authority agreed to purchase the materials directly because they won’t have to pay sales tax on the items, which will reduce expenses.

But the loan/grant agreement for the project requires that all materials purchase be “American made.” And IDA officials noted that this added to the project’s price.

The project is being funded with a $1.5 million loan/grant from the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA), with $500,000 of that “forgiven,” or not required to be paid back. The remaining $1 million will be repaid with 2.1 percent interest over 20 years.[Full Story »]

Big changes could be in store for the county planning and zoning and building inspections offices.

Madison County commissioners will likely strip the directors in both offices of their department head status this month, a move that would be accompanied by a pay cut.

Just how much salary the directors might lose still hasn’t been determined.

The BOC could also combine the two offices under one department head and move the departments into the current magistrate office, with the judge taking over the current planning office and building inspection room, using part of the space as a courtroom. The board may also cut a building inspector from full-time to part-time.

A vote on the matters could come later this month.

The board of commissioners met Dec. 4 with planning and zoning director Linda Fortson and county chief building inspector Eddie Pritchett. Both employees were questioned about their hours on the job and Fortson was asked to explain recent derogatory Facebook posts she made about the county commissioners.

Commissioner Mike Youngblood asked for Fortson to come to the table in the BOC meeting room, where he handed her a stack of papers and asked her to read them to the board and explain what she wrote.

Fortson was teary eyed as she stood at the podium and said she felt disrespected by Youngblood at a recent meeting. She said she has a lot of family and friends on Facebook and that she was seeking spiritual support from them after feeling mistreated at a recent meeting. [Full Story »]

Madison County commissioners toured the old Danielsville gym next to the county government complex Dec. 4, considering a possible deal with the school system that would put the gym in county control.

The commissioners noted that the rooms in the back of the old alternative school could be useful as additional county offices. Likewise, the old gym, which has a wooden floor in good shape, could be used by the county recreation department, which has no indoor sports facilities.

“It could provide office space,” said commissioner Stanley Thomas. “Plus, the recreation department has been waiting for an indoor facility for a long time.”

Board members took no vote on the matter during their Thursday morning budget meeting. But the group discussed a possible deal with the county school board. The county government collects property taxes for the school system, with an annual charge of $250,000 for the service. The county government could reduce or eliminate that fee for a period of time in exchange for the gym.

County school superintendent Allen McCannon said Monday that he likes the idea of a deal between the two groups. He said he feels it could be beneficial to the school system and the county recreation department.

“I feel it could be good for the county and good for our kids,” he said, adding that a reduction or elimination of the tax collection fee would be a deal that doesn’t require money changing hands.

The old gym is now used by the high school wrestling program, but McCannon said the wrestling program has outgrown the structure and school leaders are considering the construction of a wrestling and competitive cheerleading metal building behind the freshman academy. High school wrestling matches would then be held in the freshman academy gym. Wrestling mats could then be left in place in the new building, with competitive cheerleading mats placed on top of them in the summer and fall. The wrestling mats could also be used by youth wrestlers in the county, who may one day participate in the Raider program.

Meanwhile, the old Danielsville gym could be used by the recreation department for basketball and a variety of other indoor activities.

The commissioners and school board will likely continue discussion of a possible deal in coming weeks.

A battle over a whether Ivie Funeral Home can operate a crematory on Booger Hill Road has entered a new venue — a courtroom.

Ivie Funeral Home, which operates out of Commerce and Danielsville, filed suit in Madison County Superior Court against county commission chairman Anthony Dove and county chief building inspector Eddie Pritchett Dec. 4.

No hearing date has been set.

The action follows months of debate in the commissioners’ meeting room about a proposed crematory in the funeral home at the intersection of Hwy. 29 and Booger Hill Road. A number of residents of the area have adamantly opposed the plans, voicing concerns over emissions and radiation from burning bodies. Meanwhile, Ivie officials have repeatedly said that the crematory won’t pose a health hazard and that they’ve met all necessary legal requirements to operate the facility.

Ivie Funeral Home attorney Terry Brown wrote in the Dec. 4 complaint that Dove ordered Pritchett not to issue a final permit for the crematory and that there was no legal basis for the delay.

“The Plaintiffs stand to suffer irreparable injury, harm and loss unless this Court intervenes to require Defendant Eddie Pritchett to fulfill his official duties and approve the final permit authorizing the operation of a crematory at Ivie without interference from the Defendant Anthony Dove,” wrote Brown.

The commissioners recently postponed any action on the crematory. And a resident near the funeral home recently notified the Environmental Protection Division of the home’s disposal of embalming fluids in its septic system, a practice county officials said was not in line with state law. The funeral home agreed to install a holding tank and dispose of the fluids out of the county. Commissioners and neighboring residents questioned whether the funeral home could be trusted to run a crematory if it wasn’t properly disposing of embalming fluids.

Brown countered that Ivie’s disposal of fluids is in line with other funeral homes and that county officials were simply seeking a new way to thwart the funeral home’s plans when they realized they couldn’t win the crematory fight.

“When Mr. Dove saw that the efforts to stop the crematory weren’t going as planned, he jumped on a side issue,” said Brown.

Dove said the septic issue could have gone on for years without anyone knowing if the crematory mattered hadn’t surfaced. He said he believes the fight over the crematory has run its course between the funeral home and the BOC and that a legal resolution seemed inevitable.

“Unfortunately, after the meeting the other night and the revelation of the septic issues, we are probably at an impasse,” said Dove. “So we’ll have to turn it over to our legal counsel now.”

A planned crematory at Ivie Funeral Home has been the source of controversy in Madison County for months. But the conflict took another turn Nov. 24, with the business’s disposal of embalming fluids becoming a focal point.

County officials say the funeral home is putting embalming fluids in its septic system in violation of state law, while the funeral home’s attorney says county leaders know they’ve lost the crematory battle and are simply looking for another way to thwart the funeral home’s plans.

“We’ve reached a point where I’m going to strongly recommend that we stop all this nonsense,” said Terry Brown, attorney for Ivie Funeral Home, who added that the funeral home is “tired of being jerked around” and is “extremely close” to litigation.
No funeral home representatives were on hand Monday, but Tommy Cowart, who owns the funeral home property, took the podium and said he felt the funeral home, which is located at the intersection of Hwy. 29 and Booger Hill Road, had been unfairly targeted by the county regarding its septic system. He asked if all businesses were treated that way.

“Are you going to ask other businesses to check their septic tank or are we just singled out?” asked Cowart.

County commission chairman Anthony Dove said someone contacted the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) about the funeral home’s septic system. And the EPD then contacted the county.

Booger Hill Road resident Wayne Patrick contacted The Journal Nov. 25 to say that he was the one who contacted the EPD about the funeral home’s septic practices. Patrick and his family live about 600 feet from the funeral home. He noted that nine homes are within 1,000 feet of the business.

Commissioner Stanley Thomas said that the county responds to complaints about businesses and was not singling out Ivie Funeral Home.

Thomas noted that there is a private water well within 100 feet of the funeral home’s septic system. He asked Cowart how he’d feel about drinking water from a well so close to a system that handled embalming fluids.

“Would you drink water out of a fountain if you knew it was 100 feet away from embalming fluids?” asked Thomas.

Cowart said the funeral home is safe and that the embalming process, which began at the funeral home in 2010, involves smaller quantities of fluid than many would expect. He said people put all sorts of things in septic systems.

“We’re not endangering anyone’s health,” he said, adding that the funeral home hasn’t done anything wrong.

“Yes they have; they’ve put fluids in the ground that weren’t supposed to be there,” said Dove.

Cowart said that once the funeral home was notified that their disposal of embalming fluids wasn’t in line with EPD regulations, they moved to take corrective action.

“Whatever they (the EPD) say, we’ll take care of it,” said Cowart.

But Thomas said the funeral home operators should have known better and should have gotten it right from the beginning.

“They should have known when they put that in how they should be disposing of those fluids,” said Thomas. [Full Story »]

Ninety-eight percent of Madison County High School juniors passed the Georgia High School Writing Test on their first try in 2014.

The numbers continue to rise for MCHS, which had an 85 percent passing rate in 2007, an 87 percent rate in 2008, 88 percent in 2009, 89 percent in 2010, 91 percent in 2011 and 95 percent in 2012 and 2013.

The 2014 MCHS scores were better than the regional and state averages of 97 percent and 96 percent, respectively. Likewise, 13 percent of MCHS test takers exceeded standards, compared to 10 percent in the region and seven percent statewide.

Six MCHS students had perfect scores.

“All Madison County Schools teachers at every level have contributed to these scores,” said Madison County school superintendent Allen McCannon. “MCHS teachers have worked very hard. In addition to increasing rigor and opportunities for writing, MCHS has created some special incentive programs to motivate students. Elementary and middle school teachers also increased rigor and provided more activities that require writing.”

McCannon said “teachers at all levels have really focused on writing skills and it has paid off.”

“Even more good news is that we almost doubled the percentage of students who exceed versus the state percentage who exceed,” said McCannon. “ We are very proud of our students and teachers for these great accomplishments in writing.”

Madison County commissioners spoke at length with county planning leaders Nov. 14 about what went wrong with the recent crematory controversy. And they talked about changes they’d like to see in the planning and building inspection offices.

Board of commission members said they want to avoid situations in the future in which they — and the public — are “blindsided” by matters that arise without public hearings. Commissioners were unaware of a planned crematory at Ivie Funeral Home at the intersection of Hwy. 29 and Booger Hill Road until residents near the funeral home brought the matter to their attention.

County zoning administrator Linda Fortson approved a permit for the funeral home for the crematory in the spring, but leaders didn’t learn of the plans until six months later, after the funeral home installed the crematory and burned wood in the structure that had been used in transporting the equipment, which alarmed a neighboring resident, who began speaking out about the funeral home’s plans.

Over the past couple of months, numerous residents of the area have spoken against the crematory, citing concerns over emissions and radiation hazards. But funeral home leaders and others in the funeral services industry have sought to ease residents’ worries, saying there are numerous crematories in the area and that such facilities don’t pose health hazards.

Planning commission chairman Wayne Douglas addressed commissioners once again Nov. 14 about the crematory. He said he didn’t feel a controversial matter slipping through without a public hearing would be a common occurrence under the county’s zoning ordinance.

“I think this was a one-in-a-million occurrence,” said Douglas. [Full Story »]